Sure, Google's Project Glass augmented-reality technology may still be in an early stage, but the days of walking around the streets with a video feed overlaid atop your field of vision may be coming sooner than you think. As soon as June, in fact, if you're willing to shell out 199,980 yen (~US$2,476) for a pair of Brother Industries' AirScouter see-through head-mounted display. The printer and machinery manufacturer launched today in Japan a new version of their augmented-reality glasses that will support Windows XP and 7 devices.

First unveiled as a prototype way back in 2008, the AirScouter mounts a pico projector and a "half-mirrror" liquid crystal display in front of a pair of spectacle frames. The pico projector focuses light onto the translucent half-mirror display, and the results look to the eye like an image from a 16" monitor viewed from one metre away.

Sounds like a pretty nifty solution… apart from the fact that these engineers probably use smartphones, tablet and notebook devices that are a heck of a lot more powerful than the Tele Scouter mini-terminal in their day-to-day. If only the AirScouter could connect to those devices – why limit compatibility to something so proprietary?

That's the issue Brother Industries is tackling with this new version, the AirScouter WD100-G/WD100-A, which opens the floodgates for potential uses by swapping out NEC's mini-computer for a control box that you can hook up to any Windows XP (32-bit) or Windows 7 PC via USB.

Once Windows recognises the AirScouter's drivers you can set the head-mounted display to be in "mirror mode" (i.e. everything you see on your Windows device), or in "extended mode" (functions as a second screen and additional workspace, on top of a primary display).

As the AirScouter does not feature a built-in battery, power for the entire gadget will be drawn from your Windows device – but you can prevent this by plugging in a mobile battery pack to the AirScouter control box via an extra USB port.

The AirScouter control box.

An extra micro-USB port (marked with a "lightning" icon in the picture) lets you power the gadget with an external battery source.

Brother Industries will sell the new AirScouter WD-100G/WD-100A models in the middle of June for 199,980 yen.

The only difference between the two models is that while WD-100G comes with lenses ready to use for folks with perfect eyesight, the WD-100A does not, for users who require prescription lenses.